A terrible break

Jennifer Blair’s goal this past weekend was to break records, but the only thing she shattered on Saturday was her thumb and a vaulting pole.

Blair, a senior at Dawson High School, had her eyes firmly set on claiming a medal in the girls’ Class 4A pole vault when adversity threw her for a damaging fall while warming up for the event.

“I just planted my pole and it was a freak break,” said Blair, a University of Houston commitment. “It just blew up in my hand, breaking into four pieces.

“I got splinters in my back and it bent my (left) thumb all the way back. One piece shot 20 feet into the air and wound up 12 rows into the stands. It broke high, low and in the middle all at the same time.”

Blair was about six feet into the air on her second run-through when her medal aspirations came to an end.

“I was in the rock-back position when it happened,” Blair said. “I didn’t make it to the mat - I landed in the box.”

Despite being enduring intense pain, Blair’s focus, amazingly, was on continuing to compete.

“My first concern was to let me get back and warm up, but they took me away (for treatment),” Blair said.

Dawson track coach Jerry Killen is still amazed at Blair’s resolve.

“That happened at about 2:50 p.m., and the event was scheduled to start at 3 p.m.,” Killen said. “They wheeled her to a medical team, wrapped her (broken thumb) and checked her knee out.

“She said ‘I can walk’, and I didn’t see any way that she could run. But she’s a special athlete.”

Blair made it back just in time for her first vault. She missed on her first two attempts at 10-6 before clearing the height on her third try.

“The pain was excruciating,” Blair said. “It was like I was in shock. I just couldn’t sit there and watch everybody else vault.”

Blair’s hair, off all things, prevented her from clearing 11 feet.

“My ponytail knocked the bar off,” she said. “My hair knocked it off on the way down. I was using a smaller pole, one that I wasn’t used to, that I hadn’t worked with in two weeks.

“If I had had a heavier pole, I know I could have cleared (a personal best) 11-6 for sure. Twelve feet would have been iffy.”

Blair went to the doctor Monday for x-rays and a MRI to determine the extent of ligament and tendon damage.

“Both of my knees still hurt,” she said. “Walking normally I can deal with. It’s going up and down stairs that really hurts. Hopefully, I’ve still got a scholarship.”

When Blair cleared 10-6, an appreciative crowd gave her a standing ovation.

“I was just devastated after that third attempt (at 11 feet),” Blair said. “I wanted to go 11-6, and I know I could have gotten it. It’s been a rough season, but I made the best of it.